Will you risk your health to clean your gutters? Why not hire the pros to do the dirty work?

We could spend this blog listing the proper equipment you’ll need in order to clean your gutters. We could describe, without seeing your home or office how to go about cleaning your gutters. But, ultimately, we can’t guarantee your safety.

There’s a lot to working safely from ladders. It’s a little like trying to teach someone to golf. It’s almost impossible to keep everything in mind at once, unless you’re a pro. Considering the dangers of climbing ladders to clean your own gutters, you might think it’s better just to leave your gutters full. Unfortunately, this isn’t a good idea either.

You need to clean your gutters, particularly before winter, because they don’t allow water to discharge into and out through the downspouts. Instead, the ice and snow builds up on your home or office roof. Under the snow and ice, the heat from inside your home or office defrosts some of the lower layer of snow and ice. If the gutters are full, the moisture released by this defrosting process has no where to go but in.

By in, we mean that the water backs up under the shingles. Serious damage can be done to the wood sheeting and framing under your roof if you don’t clean your gutters. In other words, it’s essential to have your gutters cleaned with winter’s approach. This is all the more the case since winter is preceded by autumn, the season known for falling leaves, many of which, inevitably, land in your gutters.

Obviously, the solution is to bring in a professional to clean your gutters. There are a lot of people advertising as professionals and offering to clean your gutters. Some of these are people with little more experience on ladders than you may have. They simply saw this as a way to make some cash. So how do you determine who to hire.

A true professional has experience. They’ve cleaned the gutters on many houses and offices before. They know what they’re doing. They know how to work safely from a ladder. They’ll have the right equipment on hand to begin with. They’ll also know enough not to do a job, such as cleaning gutters, without proper insurance and bonding.

With professionalism will come attention to detail. The pros will clean the leaves, twigs and that disgusting sludge from your gutters in a way that leaves no doubt they’ve done this before. They’ll test the downspouts to ensure they’re clear. They’ll test for leaks and other problems.

Hiring a professional is well worth the cost. While they safely clean your gutters, you can devote that time to other pursuits.

Cleaning leaves from Northern Illinois gutters - how could something so incredibly beautiful be such a terrible pain in the neck?

Sure those leaves are beautiful in Northern Illinois, but that doesn't
make it any safer when someone has to climb a ladder
to clean the leaves out of the gutters.

For many Northern Illinois residents, autumn is their favorite season. The weather in Northern Illinois is generally cool but not too cold. The bugs are generally less prevalent and, above all, the leaves are incredible. People check for the optimal times to take trips where they can see the fall colors in their full splendor. The autumn colors are a wonder of the world. They are beautiful beyond words. And yet, those beautiful leaves are also a major pain in the neck.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the leaves were brightly colored with reds, yellows, oranges, browns and greens the year round – that they never fell from the trees? But, here in Northern Illinois, they do fall and when they fall they create a mess for homeowners and businesses. There’s all that raking. But the leaves don’t just fall on the ground.

When the autumn leaves fall, they don’t just land on the ground. Any obstacle between the branches and the ground is a potential resting place for falling leaves. That includes buildings – homes and businesses. With wind and rain, the leaves work their way down from the roof and into the gutters.

Think about it. If a modest home has a roof area of 2,000 square feet (50 X 40), that’s the equivalent of a small yard’s worth of leaves waiting to work their way into the gutters. Yes, some will blow over, particularly when the gutters and full and bulging with leaves. In no time at all, the gutters are busting at the seams with leaves.

A gutter full of leaves is a gutter that doesn’t work. Working, a gutter moves water from the roof through downspouts and away from the home or office. Full of leaves, a gutter is completely useless. If you’ve ever seen a home without gutters, you’ve seen how the water spills directly off the roof digging a small ditch line around the structure.

Without gutters, the water builds up in the wrong area and, once frozen later in the next season, presents a serious hazard with the potential to cause falls. The water also has the potential to work its way into the basement of the building.

More than just creating a situation where the gutters don’t work properly, when the gutters are full of leaves, ice and snow build up on top of the gutters. The weight can cause the gutters to break. This presents another hazard and an expense.

Without gutters, the roof will also create an army of icicles, all in a row. This is another falling hazard.

The solution is to clean the gutters every fall. It’s a good idea to wait until the leaves have fallen but, once they have, it’s time to make sure the gutters can do their intended job.

You can clean the gutters yourself but safety is a big factor. It requires working off a ladder and, to some degree, reaching out from the sides of the ladder into the gutter. It’s a messy and hazardous job. Better yet, why not just hire someone to clean the gutters for you?

If you do opt on having someone else clean your gutters, be sure to hire someone who knows what they’re doing – they’ve done it before. Also, and this is essential, make sure they’re insured. The risk of a fall is all the greater with some novices doing the work. But, either way, you want to make sure that, if someone does fall when cleaning your gutters, they don’t leave you holding the bag.